Pedro Sanchez works to eradicate hunger with the Millennium Villages Project
At least a billion people don't know where their next meal is coming from. That's according to Pedro Sanchez, an agricultural expert at Columbia University's Earth Institute, and director of the Millennium Villages Project. The project aims to help combat hunger, starting with 80 villages in Africa.皮德罗·桑切斯说至少10亿人下一顿饭没有着落。皮德罗·桑切斯是哥伦比亚大学地球研究所的专家，也是“千禧村”项目的主管。该项目旨在与饥饿斗争，从帮助非洲80个村落摆脱饥饿开始努力。
Pedro Sanchez: We selected the villages, making sure that first they were in hunger hotspots – more than 20% underweight children under the age of 5, the hunger definition – and spread them around Africa.
皮德罗·桑切斯：我们选择的是极度被饥饿困恼的村落—5岁以下20%儿童体重不达标，符合饥饿定义。之后再帮助非洲所有的村落。
Sanchez explained that the eradication of hunger is the first goal of the UN Millennium Development Goals, a series of targeted improvements for the developing world aimed at the year 2015.
桑切斯解释说根除饥饿是“联合国千年发展目标”的首项任务。“联合国千年发展目标”意味着在2015年解决发展中国家一系列定向改善计划。
Pedro Sanchez: We both have a moral as well as an economic obligation to wipe out this extreme hunger in the next 20 years. And I think we can do it.
皮德罗·桑切斯：无论道德还是经济上，我们都有义务在未来20年根除这些极度饥饿现象。我相信我们能做到。
He said that, when the Millenium Villages Project began, Earth Institute experts helped figure out which seeds and fertilizers would work best in each village. In the past five years, Sanchez said crop yields in the Millenium Villages have about tripled. But Critics of the Millennium Villages Project question whether such improvements can be sustained after the project ends. That’s why, according to the Earth Institute, the final years of the project will be devoted to strengthening the villages' economies.
他说，自“千禧村”启动，地球研究所专家们就研究出每个村落最适合的种子和肥料。在过去5年，这些村庄的庄稼收成翻三番。但该项目的一些批评者质疑项目结束后这些改善能否继续维持。为解除这一担忧，地球研究所在项目最后几年致力于强化村落经济。